


Awakenings

by genkisakka



Category: Saiyuki
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-30
Updated: 2015-01-30
Packaged: 2018-03-09 17:42:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3258635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/genkisakka/pseuds/genkisakka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mayhem, transformations and memories regained at the site of a demon's rising.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Awakenings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kirathaune](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kirathaune/gifts).



> Written for the 2014 valentine_smut Dreamwidth community exchange

Nataku wakes to mayhem.

He is in the midst of a battlefield in the world under Heaven, surrounded by youkai soldiers who appear to be fighting each other. The shouts of battle and screams of the dying fill his ears, the smell of smoke and magic burns his nostrils. The sword in his hand is smaller than the celestial blade he wielded as Toushin Taishi, but the feel of his fingers wrapped around its hilt is all too familiar. Nataku studies the blood-speckled surface of the sword’s curved blade, and catches a glimpse of himself in its reflection. He is taller and older than he remembers being, though he still has the same diamond-mark on his forehead, and the same golden eyes of an itan. The sleeve of his strange garment is black silk bordered with white.

Before Nataku can begin to form questions such as “how” and “where” and “why,” he feels a sort of charge in the air, an energy that raises the hairs on the back of his neck and sets his teeth on edge. He turns toward its source, and his heart nearly stops.

Seiten Taisei Son Goku stands about a dozen paces away, his eyes fixed on Nataku, his fangs bared. There is a figure crumpled at his feet, clad in robes so stained with blood they appear more red than white. Nataku catches a glimpse of blond hair gleaming through the carnage, and his eyes widen.

// Could that… is that Konzen Douji? //

His stomach lurches, and Nataku remembers –

_The blond youkai in monk’s robes aimed his gun at him, and the dark-haired man who somehow was controlling Nataku ordered –_

_“Kill him, and bring his sutra to me.”_

_Nataku leaped at the blond, his sword descending in a perfect arc, carving into the blond’s flesh. He heard a familiar voice scream –_

_“SANZO!”_

“Oh no,” Nataku whispers. “Oh, Goku.”

Seiten Taisei raises his face to the sky and howls.

~*~*~

Seiten Taisei Son Goku wakes to heartbreak.

The Golden One lies at his feet, bloody and broken and smelling of death. The Golden One’s killer stands still living, staring, holding the blade that cut the Golden One down. The Killing Sword will pay. He, the Great Sage, will defeat the Sword and tear out his beating heart and eat it. The Sage howls his grief and rage and intention to the sky, and it answers with a bolt of destruction directed squarely at the Sword. The Sword leaps out of the way and flies toward the Sage, shouting meaningless words. The Sage snarls and meets the Sword in the air, throwing a kick at his blade-hand, which the Sword dodges.

The Sword floats backward and continues shouting at the Sage, and the Sage recognizes part of his own name. He pauses, cocking his head, studying the killer of the Golden One. The Sword has eyes the color of amber. The Sage has seen those eyes before, a long, long time ago.

“Goku, it’s me! It’s Nataku!”

The name flows through the Sage’s memory like lava. A boy in white robes, laughing. A boy who smiled whenever they met. A boy who lay on the ground bleeding, having cut off his own arm rather than harm his friend. His friend named…

“Nataku.” The Sage touches a claw-tipped finger to his own damp cheek. “My name is Goku,” he says, his voice rough and halting.

The Sword drops his blade and flies back toward Goku, his smile tentative, his eyes brimming. “It is,” he says. “Do you remember me?”

“Nataku,” Goku replies. “You are… were… my friend.”

“Yes. Always your friend,” the one called Nataku says.

The Sage shakes his head. “Not my friend,” he growls. “You killed my Golden One!”

A deep voice interjects –

“Stop fucking killing me off, you stupid ape.”

~*~*~

Sanzo wakes to bloody robes and a ridiculous amount of searing pain.

He manages to turn onto his side and lift himself up on one elbow. He looks up and sees the asshole kid who nearly cut him in two floating in the sky with Seiten Taisei Son Goku. _Oh great,_ Sanzo thinks, _another fucking limiter destroyed._ Like they weren’t screwed enough without the Seiten Taisei to deal with. Sword-boy looks like he’s shouting at the Seiten Taisei, which proves to Sanzo that he’s an idiot, because only an idiot would try talking to the Seiten Taisei instead of carving him up.

Sanzo levers himself into a sitting position and looks down at his shattered breast plate, and the place where the sword had split his robes and flesh. Given how much it fucking hurt, Sanzo is relieved to see how shallow the cut appears -- it looks more like a scratch than a sword wound. The pain is subsiding as well, leaving a strange sort of light-headed euphoria in its wake. Sanzo wonders if he’s experiencing a near-death thing where fatal injuries look and feel much less severe than they actually are. He decides he doesn’t give a shit and slowly stands up. Sanzo figures he’d best get the Seiten Taisei under control before he rips sword-boy to shreds, not that the idea of allowing that isn’t tempting.

That’s when Sanzo realizes his sutra is no longer draped over his shoulders.

“Yes. Always your friend,” the sword-wielding moron who calls himself Nataku tells the Seiten Taisei.

It’s strange, that Sanzo can hear sword-boy as clearly as if he were standing next to him, but not nearly as strange as hearing the Seiten Taisei growling actual words in reply –

“Not my friend. You killed my Golden One!”

Hearing that idiot beast call him something so insipid makes Sanzo’s blood boil. “Stop killing me off, you stupid ape,” he yells, startling the two morons into silence. The Seiten Taisei’s eyes widen, and a disturbingly toothy grin spreads across his face. He floats to the ground and runs up to Sanzo, closely followed by Nataku.

“You live,” says the Seiten Taisei, sounding almost human, almost like Goku.

“No thanks to that fuckhead over there,” Sanzo says. “Nataku, is it?”

The blond kid nods, his gaze wary. “My apologies,” he says. “I was under orders --”

Sanzo snorted. “From that shitty crow, right?” He grabs Nataku by the front of his robe, his claws ripping holes in the silk. “Where the fuck is my sutra?”

Nataku pulls himself free. “How should I know?” he scowls. “What’s a youkai doing with monk’s robes and a sutra, anyway?”

The words hit Sanzo like a gut-punch. “Who are you calling ‘youkai’, fucker?” he growls, even as the truth of it sinks in. His claws, his enhanced hearing, his quick recovery from what should have been a killing blow.

Seiten Taisei Son Goku reaches toward Sanzo, touching his exposed collarbone with the tip of one claw. “Sanzo, your sutra,” he says in Goku’s voice. “It’s **here**.”

Sanzo can feel them now, the words winding over his shoulders and back and neck, the power of the Maten humming just below his skin, as much a part of him as his heart and brain and bones. He has no idea how any of this is possible, and judging from the earth-shaking roar coming from the direction of the palace, there is no time to dwell on it.

“I know that roar,” Nataku says grimly, picking up his discarded sword.

Goku flexes his claws and bares his fangs. “Gyuumaoh, right?”

Sanzo digs under the corpse of his thousandth youkai kill and extracts his gun. “Let’s send that demon back to hell,” he says.


End file.
